About CJ
CJ Mazzalupo has been exhibiting their work since 1993, with solo and group exhibitions in the United States and abroad. CJ had five solo exhibitions while represented by Mixed Greens Gallery in NYC from 2000-2012. Their first solo exhibition was at NYC’s White Columns Gallery in 1998. Group shows include New Langton Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Artist’s Space, New York City; BLANK Studio, Brighton, UK; Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, LA and LaMaMa Gallery in NYC.
CJ’s press includes The New York Times, Zing Magazine, France’s Art Actuel (featured artist), Art21, and Hyperallergic. Mazzalupo’s work has been presented at The Museum of Modern Art (NY), The School of Visual Arts (NY), and School of the Museum of Fine Arts (MA).
At age 38, CJ was diagnosed with Optic Neuropathy. Their vision loss decreased steadily and progressively, and they are now legally blind. This acquired disability has drastically altered the course of CJ’s life – including their identity as person and artist, and their process and output.
CJ’s creative action is now more gestural and intuitive than it was a decade ago, when they made intricate works and drawings, often childlike and always reflective of CJ’s love of research and reporting. Now, intuitive, abstract works are produced through movement and the use of a whole body versus just hands and mind. Each mark is a response to the one before it, whether seeking connection in overlap or seeking distance through retreat. Water merges line and color, while graphite gives voice to moments of emotional release, disorganized time, and a longing for intimacy. Layering and texts are created and often undone or concealed to reflect CJ’s interests in mapping, memory, metaphysics and the creation and distortions of meaning.
CJ’s color vision loss, contrast and peripheral vision loss, and central blind spots have had a profound effect on their engagement with materials, space, distance, light, and color. There is now a heightened level of vigilance and awareness of their body in space, both in and outside of the studio. An acquired invisible disability carries its own brand of vulnerability, and in combination with GenX queerness and an atypical neurological configuration, CJ’s art plays an even more crucial role in their communication and connection with the world at large.
CJ was the lead singer and guitarist in New York-based queercore band Triple Creme from 1998-2008. During that time, the band wrote and produced three full-length original albums and won an OUTMusic award for Recording of the Year in 2005.
RESIDENCIES & PRESENTATIONS
2023 The Constance Saltonstall Foundation Fellowship and Residency (Fall)
ChaNorth International Artist Residency Program (Spring)
2011 School of Visual Arts, MAT Art Education Department, NYC
2004 “Integrating Text”, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
1999 “New and Innovative Drawings,” The Museum of Modern Art, Department of Drawings, NYC
SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2022 Settle Your Dust, Chashama, NYC (solo)
2012 Prognosis: DOOM, Mixed Greens Gallery, NYC (solo)
2010 Stomachache, Mixed Greens Gallery, NYC (solo)
2008 Types of Kinds: A Study, Mixed Greens Gallery, NYC (solo)
2006 Hey! Get Mental!, Mixed Greens Gallery, NYC (solo)
2004 Unilope / Jackacorn, Mixed Greens Gallery, NYC (solo)
2003 Becoming a Better Person through Art, Mixed Greens Gallery, NYC (w/ Howard Fonda)
2002 Atlantis Amorous, M3 Projects, Brooklyn, NY (w/ Harry Nolan)
2000 Enough Already, Cornell DeWitt Gallery, NYC (w/ Jenny Laden)
1998 White Room, White Columns, NYC (solo)
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Every Woman Biennial: I Will Always Love You, LaMaMa Gallery, NYC
2023 Superfine Art Fair NYC, Iron23, NYC
Together We Will…, Arts Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY
Paroxysm, Curated by Alison Pirie, WestBeth Gallery, NYC
2021 Not Just Another Anthropocenic Love Story, Trestle Gallery, NYC
2020 The Era of Seclusion: Visionary Projects, Visionaryprojects.com, October
2019 Every Woman Biennial, LaMaMa Gallery, NYC
Rites of Spring, Boutiqueloo, Long Island City, NYC
2018 Free Form, Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA
International Collage Competition Winner, Artists Info, UK
2017 Time of the Season, Art Market Provincetown, Provincetown, MA
Our Daily Armour, Virago Gallery, Seattle, WA
2013 Lesbian Herstory Archives 40th Anniversary Benefit, NYC
2012 Alchemy, Harvester Gallery, Hudson, NY
House Beautiful, site specific, San Gabriel, CA
2011 The Civility Show, Curator D. Hiuni, Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, SUNY Old Westbury
Inside Joke, Curator S. Mayo, Augusta Savage Gallery, UMASS Amherst
2009 Note to Self, Schroeder-Romero Gallery, NYC
X: Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, Mixed Greens Gallery, NYC
46th Annual Juried Show, Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, LA
National Small Works Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, SUNY Cobleskill, NY
2008 Love Without Borders, BLANK Studio, Brighton, UK
2007 Main Street Bistro featured artist, New Paltz, NY
2006 Pieces of Mind, The Icarus Project, Fountain Gallery, NYC
Homo-a-gogo, Featured Artist, Olympia, Washington
2005 Scope NY with Mixed Greens Gallery, NYC
2004 Fred Flare @ Mixed Greens Gallery, NYC
Night of 1000 Drawings, Artist’s Space, NYC
Painter’s Forms, The Work Space, NYC (w/ R. Crumb & HC Westerman)
2003 Fresh stART, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
2001 Colaboratory, GAle GAtes, DUMBO, Brooklyn, NYC
To Market to Market, Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NYC
Art Santa Fe 2001, Cornell DeWitt Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Mixed Greens @ Space 101, Space 101, Brooklyn, NYC
Visual AIDS: Postcards from the Edge, Sara Meltzer Gallery, NYC
Luminous Wonders of the Electric World, New Langton Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
1999 400 Artists, Size Matters, GAle GAtes et al., Brooklyn, NYC
Contemporary Visions: Women on the Verge, General Electric World Headquarters, Fairfield, CT
1997 College Art Association Regional MFA Exhibition, Hunter College, NYC
Emerging Artists, HERE Gallery, NYC
COLLECTIONS
Chashama, New York, NY
The West Collection at SEI, Paoli, PA
Corel Corporation, Ottowa, Canada
General Electric World Headquarters, Fairfield, CT
EDUCATION
2015 Fordham University, NYC, Masters in Clinical Social Work
1997 New York University, NYC, Masters in Fine Arts/ Painting & Drawing
1991 Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY, Bachelors in Studio Art